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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27369499">Rising Waters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Watergirl14/pseuds/Watergirl14'>Watergirl14</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Kings and Queens [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Ball</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Childhood Sweethearts, F/M, Fake Marriage, First Kiss, First Time, Prequel to Drought</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:07:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,313</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27369499</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Watergirl14/pseuds/Watergirl14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Chi-Chi is six years old, she meets a monkey-tailed boy. When she is fourteen, her father dies and that boy rescues her. When she is seventeen, Raditz whisks them both away to the Saiyan empire. She loves him the whole time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chi-Chi/Son Goku (Dragon Ball)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Kings and Queens [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1412857</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Earth</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When she meets him, it is from behind the strong legs of their parents. She peeks around the Ox King, Papa, as he jokes with his old friend. The man across from her laughs through a bushy white mustache, the orange of his jacket gripped by a small, spiky haired boy. </p><p>Her father twists around, his warm smile quite unlike the chilly nervousness she felt. "Chi-Chi," he says, sweet-voiced. "This is Gohan, my friend. He will be visiting us. And this is his grandson, Goku."</p>
<hr/><p>They are sent off to play, in the way children are sent when their parents want no interruptions or distractions as they catch up. Chi-Chi brings him out to the grounds and shows him as many things as she can. They settle, after some time, in one of the groves. It is spring, and she can't recall which trees give which fruits, but the blossoms are just starting to pop. She is six years old, honest and shy. They fall onto their backs and look up to the heavens. </p><p>"Are you a boy or a girl?" he asks. When she tells him, he says, "Are you a mother? That's what girls are, right?"</p><p>She shakes her head. "You have to be grown to be a mother. Or a father," she adds as an afterthought. </p><p>"Oh. Okay."</p><p>“I never knew my mother," she says, because it is true.</p><p>“Me neither. The only person I knew before today is Grampa.” His tail swishes, the brown fur catching a gentle breeze.</p><p>"Why do you have a tail?" she asks, reaching for it and grabbing it. He freezes, as though paralyzed, until she lets go, when he tugs it back toward his body. </p><p>"Don't do that! It's my weakness."</p><p>"Oh. Okay." She scratches her chin. "I don't have a tail. Do you have to be a boy to have a tail?"</p><p>He blinks at her, thinking quite hard. "I don't know. I'm the only person I know with one."</p><p>"Not your Grampa?"</p><p>"No." He shakes his head. She finds it strange that his hair doesn't move when he does. "Grampa found me in the woods when I was a baby. He isn't my real Grampa."</p><p>When she goes to ask more, one of the castle cats races out of the bushes chasing a mouse, and they both are derailed, scrambling up and chasing after them with delighted shrieks. He outruns her.</p>
<hr/><p>They visit every month for a year, through a brutally hot summer, a chilly fall, a cozy winter, and back to the green buds of spring. When Papa's friend doesn't come one month, he sends her back up to the castle with a pat on the head and a scrunched up look in his eyes, like he can't see right. He is gone a while, until past dark, and when he comes back it is with the spiky haired boy, dirt dusted clothes, and low shoulders.  </p><p>Her father sits them both down on a chaise in the north wing, crouching in front of them, still too tall to meet their eyes. "Chi-Chi," he says to her, face blotchy red. "Goku will be staying with us for a while." </p><p>His Grampa is dead. Papa tells her that he'd found Gohan bloodied and beaten, bit and bruised. "Like an animal had attacked," he says to a servant when he thinks she's not there. His body festered in the woods near the hut he and Goku called home, bones catching the light. It turns her stomach. </p><p>Only a few months pass before they learn what happened. Goku, looking up at the full moon after losing track of time, monstrous. Her head cranes up to see the mindless great ape turn to her and roar. A scream, running, back toward the castle. </p><p>She is yanked back by strong arms, Papa, a rescue. "Get behind," he commands, and she shelters in the ruins of the shed they had played in just minutes before. Another roar, her ears ringing, the sounds of a fight. She crouches and covers her head, shaking and crying. </p><p>When it is quiet again, Papa shouts to her, and she crawls out of the debris. Goku is back, naked and small and slumped over her father's strong shoulder like a ragdoll. A bloody stump replaces his tail—yes, the same tail Papa holds in his hands as he heaves desperate breaths. </p>
<hr/><p>Goku leaves them soon after, shoulders even lower than before. His tail is healing, slowly growing back, but now he knows the dangers of the moon. "I have to go," he says when Chi-Chi pleads. She isn't afraid anymore. She can’t be, not of him. </p><p>Papa is sad, but it is tempered with fear for his only child. Chi-Chi, then, is the one who watches him from the castle window, as Goku walks into the woods with a sack of food, heading for a spare cottage that once belonged to her mother. </p><p>On nights of the new moon, when it is as dark as it can be, her father lets her run out there and play, and when he comes to pick her up they share dinner together. </p>
<hr/><p>She follows her father around the castle incessantly, bothering him about everything she can think of, asking about things their staff had talked about when they thought she wasn't around. Chi-Chi begs for stories about times past and her mother and what life will be like when she's a fully grown princess. When Papa is busy, she asks the same of the servants. </p><p>It is perhaps in desperation that Papa suggests that they bring down something to eat during their visit to Goku. Chi-Chi decides this means fried chestnuts, and she spends most of an autumn afternoon fighting with sugar and the oven. Her father helps occasionally, but it is mostly their servants who pass along tidbits of cooking skills. By the end, she has burned a lot of chestnuts, but her final batch is one she is proud of, and Goku eats the burned ones anyway. </p><p>After that, Papa makes it a point to give her proper cooking lessons. </p>
<hr/><p>"Papa says you might marry me," Chi-Chi announces to him as they jump through trees. </p><p>"What is marry?" Goku asks, hanging upside down from his tail. She giggles as he swings back and forth, and he grins in response and swings even harder. </p><p>"Marriage. It's something grown-ups do." She sits on her branch. "When you marry someone, it's because you are in love. You get married. Then you can become a mother or father with them."</p><p>"Huh." He pulls himself up, grabbing the tree like a monkey. "I loved Grampa. So did he marry me?"</p><p>Chi-Chi vigorously shakes her head. "No, no! Not that kind of love."</p><p>"What kind?"</p><p>She starts to answer, but Chi-Chi is eight, and she doesn't have the words. She is, however, convinced she is in love with the strange little boy with the tail that lives in her woods, and she is too naive to know she shouldn't tell him that. "It's the kind of love I have for you, Goku," she says, blushing. </p><p>"You're all red," he says. "Why?"</p><p>She frowns. "When a pretty girl says she loves you, you're supposed to say it back."</p><p>He rubs the back of his head with a crooked smile. "Oh, sorry Chi-Chi. I didn't know. I do love you, though."</p><p>She pecks his cheek, and runs away when he looks confused by it. </p>
<hr/><p>When Chi-Chi is nine years old, her Papa sits her on his knee for the last time and says, "Lets teach you how to fight. You and Goku both."</p><p>They take to it like birds to air. Of the two of them, Chi-Chi is the first to land a punch on her father, and she feels a thrill she’ll never let go of. </p><p>Soon, he gives her a helmet and some armor in blue and pink. Goku gets a new gi to match. </p><p>They spar when they visit each other.</p>
<hr/><p>Teenage years come soon. At thirteen, she hits her last growth spurt, shooting up over Goku over the course of a few months and filling out what will someday be womanly curves. She feels gangly and awkward, but her father assures her of normalcy. She catches Papa looking at her wistfully, and when she asks him about it one day, he just says she looks so much like her mother, and wipes his eyes. (Unfortunately, he follows up this sentiment with a rather in-depth version of "the talk" and thus the memory is tarnished.)</p><p>Puberty is generous to Chi-Chi, but Goku doesn't notice. At first this bothers her, but when he fails to grow and remains the same height as his seven-year-old self, she begins to find other boys in the castle more interesting. </p><p>She still goes to train with him twice a week, though, and they have dinner every Sunday. Chi-Chi often brings a dish she'd made. A few times, Papa goes without her to see him. </p><p>One day, Goku isn't at the cottage, and Papa says he's out training by himself. She mopes around the castle for a week, and when he comes back at the end of the month Chi-Chi hugs him for a long time.</p>
<hr/><p>A servant knocking over a candle, perhaps. A bubbling pot stoked too high. The cause doesn't matter, not as the smoke chokes her lungs and the flames sear her skin. Blazing out of nowhere, she slams her shoulders into the window, panes of glass shattering after a few hits, cutting her cheek but it is pain or be killed. High up, can she survive a jump? Below on the grounds she sees people flooding out, running through the forest. Where is Papa?</p><p>A flash from the east catches her attention, and she hears her name on the wind. Goku at fifteen has still not grown yet, taking up such little room as he surfs the nimbus cloud. </p><p>When he tells her to jump and holds out his arms, she doesn't hesitate. </p>
<hr/><p>Papa is dead. </p><p>They catch up with her servants, huddled and shaking in the woods, and their chef sobs that she had seen him going back to pull more people free of the burning building. Rain pours through the smoke, snuffing the fire, and Chi-Chi charges in, heart beating furiously and stomach tied in a knot. </p><p>She finds his body in the ruins, curled around one of their maids. Protector to the end. </p><p>Chi-Chi screams until her voice gives out, and when the staff come they sob with her, a pile of grief scraping their knees on burnt wood and death.</p>
<hr/><p>The surviving servants return to their families, nothing left for them at Mount Paozu anymore. She and Goku return to her mother's cottage, two teenage orphans steeped in mourning. The first week is a hazy blur of sleep and weeping, anger and fear. Chi-Chi, later on, could not remember anything of substance about that week. She sleeps in the cottage bedroom, in a bed the size of an ocean. He prefers to sleep under the stars.</p><p>Goku feeds her as best he can, cooking fish and wild game outside. The crackling of roasting meat on a spit has her dry heaving and breaking into sweats. She says nothing, but still he moves the fire pit further from the house.</p><p>Her first moment of clarity after the fire is dinner one night, Goku gnawing voraciously on some leg bone, Chi-Chi plucking at the charred skin. When she looks up, her eyes drift past him to the corner of the cottage to a small sink and…</p><p>"Don’t you know how to use a stove?" she asks, pointing toward it. It might be the first words she's said to him since the fire. She isn't sure. </p><p>Mouth full, he turns toward it, then shakes his head and swallows. "Grampa and I would only cook on spits."</p><p>Chi-Chi purses her lips. When she was back at the castle, Papa had taught—no, thinking about Papa sears a fresh brand into her. She had <em>learned</em>, then, how to cook basic things. Chestnuts. Stir fry. Dumplings. Roasts. It was fun, then. Things that involved the oven and the burners. </p><p>It turns into dusting the kitchen and looking in the cabinets. There’s some old jars of pickles, ancient-looking spices, tinned meats. A box full of lavender tea that smells like home. Rice. Everything salvageable, she turns into a basic stew, the sound of the knife on the cutting board a comfort. This is something she can do.  </p><p>Sipping the tea as Goku wolfs down her cooking is like a cold balm on a burn. She decides to cook more often.</p>
<hr/><p>When fall comes, and the winds start to tease wintertime, they decide to move on, thinking about the Dragon Ball he left when his grandfather died. Chi-Chi packs a rucksack of clothes and a toothbrush, the lavender tea she likes, and a picture of her parents off the wall of the cottage.</p><p>When they reach Goku's old home, the Four Star ball is gone, and they go after it. They find places to sleep, places to eat. They make friends—a monk without a nose, a lecherous martial arts master—and they make enemies of the Red Ribbon, but that's a story told elsewhere. </p><p>When they have time, they spar. </p>
<hr/><p>Goku hits his growth spurt at sixteen, and practically overnight he shoots up taller than her. He eats ravenously (more so than usual), only stopping to train and sleep, if that. Honestly, it looks like it hurts. Sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night, hearing grunts and groans and, once, a great shout from where he’s bedded down. During the day, though, he is as happy as ever. </p><p>Like her, with height comes filling out, and she catches herself leaning out the window of their latest house one day, summer heat stifling except for the occasional breeze up the mountain. He trains, punching and kicking at invisible targets like he always has. His shirt, soaked, was thrown aside an hour ago to collect dirt and grass. It is the first time she has seen him topless since her own growth spurt and—</p><p>—he just, <em>glistens</em>. </p><p>That's the only word for it and she's certain she only knows it from one of the books her mother had stashed away, a dogeared tome with a couple on the cover holding each other through torn clothes and heavy wind. But it's true. The light sparks off the droplets on his muscles that she is <em>absolutely</em> sure were not there a week ago, no matter how much training they’d done, and she can't help but be transfixed at how the sweat emerges, beads, and soon becomes heavy enough to slide down and drip onto the dirt. </p><p>(A princess doesn’t gawk, some part of her mind reminds her. This isn’t lady-like. Contain yourself. But she doesn’t.)</p><p>When he catches her looking at him, he is a little out of breath, but he grins. "Come fight me!" he says, and he races over to grab her hands. His skin is hot to the touch, and she lets him pull her, because it's easier than figuring out what had come over her. </p><p>She does, though, notice that when she strips off her nice shirt in favor of the fighting clothes underneath, Goku's cheeks flush a little more than normal as he fights her.</p><p>Chi-Chi decides that as a boy, Goku is interesting again. But she also can't ride nimbus anymore after that, and she's not entirely sure why. </p>
<hr/><p>They trained together then.</p><p>They train together now.</p><p>They will train together always.</p>
<hr/><p>"You should be my boyfriend," Chi-Chi declares one night, the two of them lying in the grass watching a meteor shower. </p><p>"What's that?"</p><p>She looks over at him. He faces skyward, shooting stars reflecting in his eyes. "It means you would be someone that I love romantically. And I would be your girlfriend in the same way."</p><p>Now he is looking at her, confused but maybe blushing. "Romantically?"</p><p>It was easier to speak before eye contact, but she takes a breath and presses on. "We get along really well. And I think that...Papa was right, that you might marry me someday. But before you do that, you have to be my boyfriend first." </p><p>Goku has known Chi-Chi for almost ten years, so he knows when he's outclassed. "Okay. I'll be your boyfriend."</p><p>She beams, and that makes him smile. He's always liked making her happy. </p><p>Chi-Chi has to explain what a kiss is, but he's enthusiastic about learning and they have their first one under the stars, so she counts that as a success. </p>
<hr/><p>One of the meteors was not a meteor. </p><p>It was a spaceship. Inside that ship was a black-haired, brown-tailed man with a strange machine on his ear. </p><p>That man is Raditz, and he is a Saiyan from an alien planet, a member of a royal court, and Goku's brother.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Space</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The best way Chi-Chi has of dealing with the bombshells Raditz drops on them is to invite him to dinner. It seems that all Saiyans enjoy her cooking and have monstrous appetites, so that goes over well.</p>
<p>Raditz is blunt, but he seems to have no hostility toward her or Goku—rather, Kakarot, his true name. No, once they explain to him about Goku's childhood brain trauma, he omits no details and answers all their questions. Even if he is a little pissy about it.</p>
<p>The ultimatum is harder to deal with.</p>
<p>"We need you on homeworld, Kakarot," his brother says. "There's not enough of us left."</p>
<p>"This is my home," Goku says simply. "I don't want to leave."</p>
<p>A heavy sigh. "You don't understand. Prince Vegeta knows you're here. If you don't come back, he'll kill me, then you, and then might blacklist your planet for good measure."</p>
<p>Chi-Chi scoffed. "And you work for this guy? He sounds like a scoundrel."</p>
<p>Furrowed brows on both of the men. Raditz frowns especially deeply. "Genocide of your people will do that."</p>
<p>Goku stood up, leaving the other two startled. "I'll go," he said.</p>
<p>It is a moment that seems to stretch out before her forever, a moment of decision, how to react? A jumble of thoughts in a row about Goku, Papa, castles and cottages, camping and sweaty shirts.</p>
<p>"If you go," she barked, shooting up, "I'm going too."</p>
<p>Goku doesn't talk her out of it.</p><hr/>
<p>It takes longer to convince Raditz that it's a good idea, but once he realizes there's no Goku without Chi-Chi, he relents, and they come up with a plan.</p>
<p>"You'll have to pretend to be mates," he says. "She looks enough like a Saiyan that Vegeta might buy it. But he won't take her if you don't."</p>
<p>"Okay," Goku says, cheerful as ever. "How do we do that?"</p>
<p>Chi-Chi had envisioned her engagement multiple times since childhood. She'd run through hundreds of variations to make sure she had all of the options covered. This is <em>not</em> one of them.</p>
<p>As they step into a tiny space pod, Chi-Chi has only packed two outfits, one big box of lavender tea, and the picture of her parents. Goku has the clothes on his back. This is fortunate, because cramming three people into two chairs is uncomfortable at best without even the most meagre belongings.</p>
<p>Luckily, this discomfort overwhelms her nerves, and by the time she realizes she's been sedated, they've arrived.</p><hr/>
<p>Raditz had come in a sleek ship, round with fantastic and futuristic features beyond anything Chi-Chi could have imagined in a million years as a princess from the countryside, so when they dock with a <em>castle</em>, you could say she is unprepared.</p>
<p>Goku—no, Kakarot—takes it all in stride while she is slack-jawed as Raditz leads them around. Introductions are numerous, with Raditz thankfully translating for "his brother and his brother's mate, who don't know anything yet". Before they meet the chief of staff, Raditz warns them to be on their best behavior.</p>
<p>Tarble is a diminutive man, different from the Saiyan soldiers in stature and attitude. He and Raditz speak at length without translation, Chi-Chi sweating under her dress and trying to remember their story. Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter what she does or does not remember. Tarble nods and gives some instructions and Raditz whisks them off. They get uniforms, armor, and what looks like a ratty children's picture book for letters and numbers in what she later finds out is Galactic Standard. They are given a month to acclimate and be trained.</p>
<p>They are also given quarters. Small, sparsely furnished, but there's a few fancy machines that can give them just about anything she wants.</p>
<p>Minus one.</p>
<p>Their cover story is one of lifelong commitment and partnership, which neither sounds bad nor is really that inaccurate, except for the instantaneous jump up from casual dating to marriage. So really, if Chi-Chi thinks about it, it makes sense that they would be provided only a single bed.</p>
<p>Still, they get used to it fast.</p><hr/>
<p>Once Table is satisfied with their command of the language, he puts them to work. Chi-Chi spends her 18th birthday at a soldier's post, ordered to go down to some planet called Kanassa and patrol the outside of the ship. Her companion, a young soldier named Tesulet, asks her gruff questions as they walk. Chi-Chi at first steels herself against flirtation and unwanted advances, but none come. The whole ship knows who she is—she’s the only woman aboard, after all, and Raditz’s brother’s mate, making her somewhat of a minor celebrity and firmly off-limits. Plus, Tesulet tells her after a few weeks, he’s mated to another soldier named Nion. Saiyans, it seems, respect whatever their version of marriage is to an absurd degree.</p>
<p>She can appreciate that.</p>
<p>Tesulet is her assigned partner the entire time they’re on Kanassa’s blue, rocky surface. And Chi-Chi, day in and day out, walks around the ship with Tesulet, holding a spear and seeing strange blue rocks that look less and less strange with time.</p>
<p>One day a week, more or less, she has off. Goku, who is stronger than her, partnered to Raditz, and doing something distinctly less boring, always gets her to spar with him those days. She does.</p>
<p>Five months go by this way. Boring. Uneventful. Blue and rocky. Broken up by small events: in January, they negotiate with Tarble to get a couch and she sees some blue rocks. In March, she gets a matching ottoman and sees some blue rocks. In April, they figure out how to use the synthesizers and make pillows and she sees some blue rocks.</p>
<p>Chi-Chi decides, right around Goku’s 19th birthday, that she hates being on the ship.</p>
<p>“We should run,” she says to Goku one night. They sleep next to each other, whatever healthy distance had been between them when they first arrived evaporated.</p>
<p>Goku is stretched out in bed, and he looks at her with sleepy eyes.  “What do you mean, Chi?”</p>
<p>She picks her head up from his shoulder. “We should get off the ship. We should leave.”</p>
<p>He blinks. “Why?”</p>
<p>The air hums gently around them, the engine sending sound through the metal of the ship. It grates on her nerves. She huffs. “I hate it here. I don’t want to be a soldier.”</p>
<p>Goku is quiet for a moment, then says, “I like it on the ship.” He scratches the back of his head. “I don’t think Raditz would want us to leave.”</p>
<p>It is neither lady-like or befitting of a princess when she rolls over and screams into her pillow, kicks her legs, and slams her fists into the mattress.</p><hr/>
<p>Goku visits his brother next door often, but it is rare when Raditz comes into their quarters. She likes Raditz well enough, but he says his synthesizer has a broader selection for meals. Once Chi-Chi figures out how to synthesize pots and pans, though, she starts trying to program vegetables, rice, meats, cakes. Tesulet tells her that Nion is good with the synthesizers and she asks the two to help her out one evening in exchange for some home-cooked food. They trial and error between the three of them, but over the course of a few hours tasting, retching, and reprogramming they manage to get the basics. She thanks them with dumplings.</p>
<p>Cooking becomes Chi-Chi’s way of staying grounded when she doesn’t have time to spar. Chopping vegetables, shaping rice balls, this is something from home. This is something that isn’t just because she’s in a castle hurtling through space. It’s meditative. Plus, she learns, when she cooks Goku gives her this great smile, and all of her neighbors start poking their noses in looking for snacks, even Radtiz. Saiyans have insatiable appetites, it seems. There’s six other soldiers in the wing they live in: Gurdo, Diven, Colla, Pinch, Soko, and Tercless. She learns what they like to eat soon.</p>
<p>It’s not so bad, sometimes.</p>
<p>Raditz is the only one visiting tonight as she stands in their kitchen. She’s been trying to get the synthesizer to output shrimp properly, and this latest batch is the best one so far. She’s breading them as the brothers Bardock chat on the couch.</p>
<p>Chi-Chi doesn’t mean to eavesdrop, but she can’t help it when she hears Goku complain and lower his voice.</p>
<p>“Raditz,” he says. “I don’t even know how to <em>be</em> mates.”</p>
<p>She freezes, shrimp in hand.</p>
<p>He keeps going, the characteristic optimism absent from his voice. “I know she isn’t happy here. I don’t know how to fix it. Do you?”</p>
<p>Raditz sighs. He is quiet for a long moment, and his words are practically whispered. “I was mated, Kakarot.”</p>
<p>“You were?”</p>
<p>Muted pride.  “My mate was Sava. A ferocious warrior. Killed by Frieza.”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Goku says.</p>
<p>“Stop. Saiyan’s don’t apologise.” A pause. “I do not wish to talk about this again. I am telling you only so you can know that my advice is good.” Another pause. “Brother, stop hugging me.”</p>
<p>Chi-Chi goes back to her chopping. It feels wrong to be listening, now.</p><hr/>
<p>That night, as they lay next to each other, she can feel Goku fidgeting beneath the sheets. The engine hums through the walls.</p>
<p>“You’re keeping me awake,” she says gently.</p>
<p>“Sorry, Chi. I just got a lot on my mind from talking to Raditz.”</p>
<p>Chi-Chi rolls over to look at him. After nearly a year of being on the ship, she’s used to him being shirtless at night, to strategically averting her eyes. Now, she looks. Goku’s staring up at the ceiling, hands behind his head. He’s been training without her, and his muscles are more defined. There’s a dusting of hair on and under his arms that she doesn’t remember seeing before.</p>
<p>A moment’s hesitation, and she trails her fingers over his pec. He’s warm and they’re firm, but the skin is soft.</p>
<p>Goku’s looking at her now with big confused eyes, and Chi-Chi kisses him for the first time since coming on the ship. Chaste, but quick. </p>
<p>The second kiss is neither.</p><hr/>
<p>The next planet on their agenda is Konats, and the trip is due to take a few weeks, so the crew is given extended time off to prepare. By the time that they enter the planet's orbit, everyone is itching to get down. War torn, Prince Vegeta expects to fold the planet into the empire and resupply in one fell swoop. After a week, today, they are due to leave and head for the next planet. Fortunately, Goku is off duty during that. "It's always so boring when we take off," he will grumble. "There's never any fun."</p>
<p>They still like to train together when they can, and deep in the ship there is a gymnasium of sorts where the soldiers can hone their skills. Smaller rooms alongside serve as private training areas that can be reserved, ostensibly for soldiers who want solitude or more one on one instruction. Goku and Chi-Chi make it a habit to book one on their days off to keep their martial arts sharp. It makes her feel like she's keeping her Papa alive through it all.</p>
<p>Chi-Chi is years past being a hormonal fifteen-year-old, and besides they have been sharing a bed for more than a year now, so neither one of them bat an eye at the sight of the other stripping off bulky uniforms. The ship-wide standard for workout clothing are tight compression shorts, and a breast band for Chi-Chi (the only woman onboard). It's not what they would choose for themselves, but they're used to it now.</p>
<p>First comes forms and katas, breathing exercises, stretching, strength routines. It doesn't take long, they're both in good shape. Besides, the fun part is sparring. She can't pretend that he doesn't outclass her physically—Chi-Chi was the strongest woman on Earth when she left but there's no competing with a Saiyan, and besides Goku has always been faster than her, even as children. They don't spar to win. They spar to <em>spar</em>.</p>
<p>Right now she's laying punches on him as fast as she can, and he makes it look effortless when he moves out of the way of her blows. She's learned through the years that she doesn't have to pull her punches anymore—no, if his guard is up there's no way she can do damage. Other people might say that the look on his face was a grimace, or a threat. She knows it's a grin, and she knows her bared teeth say the same.</p>
<p>She lands a punch when he anticipates her incorrectly, and she pounces on the opportunity. A sweep of the leg, his knees buckle and he's down, and she slams on him. She's small and flexible and hard to grab—Chi-Chi's best chance at making Goku tap out is by grappling on the ground and they both know it. Once they get here, they're almost evenly matched—Goku 22 vs Chi-Chi 20, it's a running bet between the two of them.</p>
<p>The fight renews. He catches her fist but her elbow strikes true, the goal is to get him to show a weakness for just a moment, to get his elbow in a lock between her thighs. When she rocks her weight forward to catch him, it is a second too late—his hips buck her off onto the mat, and before she can get good purchase and rotate around she feels the heavy press of him, her arm wrenched behind her back, face and chest smushed into the floor as he bows around her. She's small and flexible and hard to grab but she's not enough of those things to get loose this time. She feels the chuckle in his chest before she hears it, and she groans with resigned defeat.</p>
<p>"That was a great sweep, Chi-Chi," he praises from behind her, still not letting her up. He sounds winded. She must have done a real number on him.</p>
<p>"Thanks," is her muffled and deadpan reply. "Will you get off?" She wiggles under him, trying to loosen herself, or at least give him a hint.</p>
<p>"<em>Hey</em>," he says, and there's a catch to his voice she isn't used to. Even stranger, he hesitates. But he doesn't let her go. No, for a moment his grip on her tightens just slightly, and it's because he's bending over to her ear, the one not wedged between her head and the floor.</p>
<p>"What?" she asks, worried, but then he speaks and—</p>
<p>"Chi-Chi," he says, oh Kami, his voice is so <em>low</em>, that part of her memory reading romance novels calls it husky, and his breath just ghosts the side of her ear like a caress and she can't help her shiver or her gasp, it's involuntary and confusing all the same, what? She feels warm all of a sudden, they've been moving and dodging and pushing each other but this doesn't feel like that, or maybe that but more. "Could you, could you do that again?"</p>
<p>She wants to ask what he means but he tells her when he grinds his hips back down into her ass.</p>
<p>Another gasp, she is suddenly <em>very</em> aware of how thin those compression shorts are and just how hot their skin is where it makes contact, his stomach against the small of her back, sending shocks of pleasant static bouncing along her body. Goku makes a noise she's never heard from him before, deep and guttural, almost a growl, then he flinches back from her a moment, abruptly silencing himself. Chi-Chi rolls herself around as best she can—his grip on her is a little looser but she's still pinned—enough to get a look at his face.</p>
<p>Flushed, wide eyes and wide pupils, but his eyebrows are drawn together like he's puzzling something out, or maybe memorizing a technique. When Goku gyrates into her another time, it’s deliberate, and slow, and she notices something hard trapped between their bodies—“Chi,” he whines, there’s so much need there, “I don’t even know what I want from you right now.”</p>
<p>As a former princess, she's been instructed to be ladylike as much as she can. Even in battle, she tries to maintain a graceful but deadly elegance, though she's always found herself far too hot-headed for that. But she tries, and she wars with herself over what to do. In this moment, that war comes barreling back to her, craning back to look at her childhood friend and pseudo-husband flushed, sweaty, confused, and totally focused on her. Instinct and intuition tell her yes. Manners and decorum tell her no.</p>
<p>Her voice is light and airy when she speaks, perhaps to split the difference, perhaps because of the awkward position. "Can you...can you try to tell me?"</p>
<p>He opens his mouth to speak and a chime rings out. Both of them flinch into reality again, that the two of them are pressed into each other in a training room, their time just now expired. She can feel herself blush and Goku bolts to standing, and she can see the outline of him through the shorts—she doesn't know if she should look away as she pushes herself off the floor.</p>
<p>Then, a cacophony of sound. Alarms blaring. They feel the ground beneath them lurch, knocking themselves into walls.</p>
<p>Later, Chi-Chi will wonder if it was worth breaking up the silence, finding out that the ship had been attacked.</p><hr/>
<p>The ship limps along, the main engine crippled and the crew decimated by the explosion. It had been chaos. Chi-Chi wasn't a medic but once Nappa had found her frantically applying a tourniquet to Nion's mangled arm, she was pulled into action. Never even had a chance to change into uniforms. Basic first aid, years of having to stitch herself and Goku up, it wasn't much but it was enough when there were only three healing pods on the ship. She had seen Goku running around with his brother, and she still wasn't sure what he had been doing, but that was something she had pushed from her mind.</p>
<p>Most of her neighbors are dead. Many more she didn’t know are dead. </p>
<p>Now she sits on her couch with her boyfriend turned false husband turned something more, curled up around each other to try and keep everything else away. The persistent hum that she's grown used to is gone, blown up with the engine itself, and her chest feels aching and empty. His doesn't, though. She can place her ear to it and hear the strong heart burning under it.</p>
<p>He was okay. It's the thing that has kept her standing through everything, this whole adventure in space. A lot of things before that. Since being a little girl, there's always been Goku, there for her.</p>
<p> <em> <span>I love you</span></em>, she thinks as she listens to him breathe.</p>
<p>"Yes?" she hears from above, and his attention is trained to her eyes. Oh. She'd said that out loud.</p>
<p>Chi-Chi is not a shy little girl anymore.</p>
<p>"I love you," she says, more firm. “And I’m glad you aren’t hurt. Or…dead.”</p>
<p>He pulls her closer to his chest, a strong arm squeezing her. “I love you too, Chi.”</p>
<p>There are tears coming now. When was the last time she cried? She can’t put words to the tragedy yet, so the small things come out instead. “I wish it didn’t have to be like this. I wish we could go back home and see Papa and run around like we did when we were kids.” She shoves her face in his shirt. He smells like stale sweat, but it doesn’t matter. “I wish I could be strong for you, Goku. I—”</p>
<p>He gives another squeeze, stronger this time. “You are strong, Chi-Chi. You’re the strongest.”</p>
<p>He’s blurry through the tears when she looks up at him. She can’t believe him. “But—”</p>
<p>Goku’s hand gently grabs her chin, and he kisses her. Soft, gentle, his arms around her. It doesn’t last long. When they break apart, she breaks down fully on his chest, weeps until she can’t anymore, and then grounds herself in exhaustion and warmth.</p>
<p>Just the one kiss, and his strong arms holding her, is enough for tonight. They fall asleep like that, wrapped up in each other. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A month later Goku gets promoted to the royal guard, joining his brother as one of the elite soldiers on the ship. It is a little somber. He’s taking someone else’s spot. They celebrate with a party in Raditz' quarters anyway, maybe trying to hold on to something. It still feels wrong to be happy sometimes. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, they learn as the weeks go by that the royal guard post is cushy, meaning that both of the sons of Bardock spend most of the day, every day, following Prince Vegeta around and standing in one spot. Raditz is used to this, but Goku gets restless fast, and without days off anymore they have a hard time getting to the sparring room. </p>
<p>(She’s been nervous about sparring with him since last time anyway. Would it happen again? She wanted it to happen, but at the same time, it was frightening. Their intimacy, their <em>sex</em> life if she could stand to call it that without blushing, it had all stopped with kisses and some caresses until then. What would a lady do? Would ladies want this at <em>all</em>?)</p>
<p>Just past Chi-Chi's 19th birthday, though, the crew gets eight days off in a row. Raditz tells them it's for a celebration of the full moon on their homeworld, which they obviously can't be back for. “Once every eight years,” he says. </p>
<p>The crew takes to reveling after the tragedy like fish to water, and unfortunately that means that when Goku tries to book the sparring room again, it’s completely full. Two days into the festival he’s antsy, practically vibrating out of his skin. “Spar with me again, please,” he begs her, big eyes, hands clasped. </p>
<p>So that was how they end up sparring in their living room, the furniture pushed out of the way as best as possible. It's cramped, but they make it work. And, once they get into the flow, Chi-Chi remembers how much she needs this too. They punch and kick and grapple and dodge their way around the room. </p>
<p>This time, it's almost unfair how Chi-Chi gets him knocked over, though she wouldn't say it's entirely her fault. No, the two of them just lose track of where they put their ottoman, and he trips over it as he dodges a kick, slamming to the floor. But Chi-Chi knows better than to give up pressing an advantage with him, and she leaps onto Goku to put him in her trusty elbow lock. </p>
<p>"Tap," she hisses, contorting her body to keep him down. </p>
<p>His voice is strained, all gritted teeth and determination. "No."</p>
<p>"Tap." </p>
<p>"I'm not giving up, Chi."</p>
<p>The position is hard to hold. He is trying to wrench his arm out from between her thighs and escape, and she struggles to hang on even before she realizes that his every attempt is pressing warm and hard muscles up into her, right between her legs, this has happened before, right? It must have, but then, before this point there had been some other things going on so that maybe she wouldn't have thought about his muscles—another maneuver and this time his forearm grinds up into her and she can't help the sound that comes out of her, a moan like pain that she stifles as fast as she can. </p>
<p>Not fast enough, though. She feels him still—since training with Raditz he's been able to stop himself moving at all, still as statue—and then his free hand goes to the back of her thigh, two swift taps. Victory, but she has other things on her mind. </p>
<p>Chi-Chi relaxes from habit, but that doesn't last long, not when he moves fast as anything, her back thudding into the floor, and her first reaction is shock that he would <em>lie</em>, but that is completely wiped out when he presses his advantage and slams his lips against hers. Lightning, sparks, boiling blood and coursing adrenaline, pent-up feelings and the dulled edge of tragedy, she meets him, an opponent, an equal, and now instead of an accidental brush of his arm his hand comes to palm at the join of her legs. She moans, not stifled, and he answers with a deep rumble, a growl, but he doesn't move. </p>
<p>Goku breaks off the kiss, and her mouth feels cold. His pupils are wide again, his eyes match, his chest heaves in time with hers. He doesn't know where to look, at her face, at his hand. "Is this—can I—"</p>
<p>A princess would blush. A princess would be demure and coy and hesitant. </p>
<p>Chi-Chi grabs his wrist and grinds up into him, gasping, "<em>Yes</em>." </p>
<p>He hisses like she’d shot him and then they’re spinning, he’s on his back again, she’s pulled down into his lap with force and she feels him, hard and hot under her, compression shorts really don’t block any of the sensations there. Two hands in tandem, he tears the breast band like it’s made of nothing, just as the chill hits her he rips through her shorts, and she can’t help the surprised yelp from it. Goku stills again, eyes locking to hers—<em>You okay?</em> they seem to ask, and she must be out of her mind, because <em>yes</em>. </p>
<p>“Get these off me,” she orders, shaking the tatters, and he is so happy to comply before his hands go <em>everywhere</em>. If his eyes were indecisive before his hands certainly are now—one goes to a breast while the other squeezes her hip. Then one to the small of her back while the other grabs her thigh and grinds her down into him. She can't help the sounds coming out of her mouth and she doesn't want to, moans and gasps and <em>yes</em> and <em>please</em> and <em>Goku</em>. </p>
<p>"Chi-Chi," he purrs, husky again. "I think this is what I wanted." </p>
<p>"I don't want you to stop," she groans. She's pawing at him too, fingers grabbing shoulders, palms cupping his chest, nails pressing crescents into his thigh as they rut. When she tugs at the waistband of his shorts he shreds them with ease, just with his tail, strengthened through training. The soft fur tickles her belly in the process, and she squirms, it's delightful and too much all at once. </p>
<p>They are skin to skin, her core is settled right over that hard length she feels, and it's hot, and foreign, and he hisses. "Wet," he manages, and his fingers go to that spot, to her opening, and they glide and she moans and can't help but buck her hips, all thought of propriety gone. </p>
<p>Chi-Chi whines when he pulls his touch away, watching as Goku looks at his hand, glistening in the light of their quarters (heaven help them, they're still on the floor of their living room). He takes a deep breath, releases it with a groan, and the tip of his tongue licks out over his fingers and oh, <em>now</em> she has the decency to blush. "What are you—"</p>
<p>"You smell so good, Chi-Chi." Two hands and a tail are coming to her waist now, lifting her off of his lap with ease, she weighs nothing to him, and he turns and sets her on the ottoman, the one he'd tripped over, it's her favorite piece of furniture now for starting all this. He's kneeling in front of her, determined but gentle as he coaxes her legs apart, she shudders at cold air over the warm wet skin of her thighs. "I wanna see if you taste good too."</p>
<p>Her breath catches. Goku takes his eyes off of her, glistening and exposed, and goes back to her face. Gods, she must look a mess, hair sticking to her at odd angles, but she can't bring herself to care more than that. Brows knitted together as he memorizes, he is just so quintessentially her Goku in that moment. Though her heart is thrumming in her chest and her fingers shake, she nods and stammers, "Okay."</p>
<p>He leans down. </p>
<p>It is clumsy. They aren't exactly in sync, her hips jerk almost uncontrollably as his lips and tongue explore her. It all feels good, hot and burning, but awkward, he brushes over some sensitive part of her and that feels best, like a power surge. She moves to adjust and he moves to go back to where he was, it is maddening. Him being so close to where she wants but not quite there. "Goku," she manages, and how did she even keep her voice steady? "You need, just—" Cupping the back of his head, she pulls him against her. "Here."</p>
<p>"This?" And he pulls her into his mouth, that sensitive nub which had sent sparks into her body now drowning her in electricity, lighting every inch of skin on fire with pleasure. The smile comes unbidden to her face. He is paying attention now, this time when she moves he lets her, and that burning feeling is getting stronger, more desperate, she feels swollen and aching and tense and the scream echoing off the walls of the room can't be hers, can it? </p>
<p>Chi-Chi comes back into herself, breathing hard, legs still clenched as the aftershocks dissipate. Goku had stopped when she locked up, now fixed on her, scanning her shaking muscles, her heaving chest, the flush blooming all over her skin. His eyes are so wide and his pupils are so big, it's like they're black the whole way through. </p>
<p>"I don't know what happened, Chi," he says, rough and low. She can see his tail slashing through the air behind him. "But I really want you to do that again."</p>
<p>"I'm not against that," she manages as she catches her breath. She needs something. "You tapped."</p>
<p>"Yeah?" </p>
<p>She isn't sure whether this boldness is appropriate, and doesn't care as she climbs off the ottoman, back into his lap, pulling out her bun. "Get on your back again. I'm taking my prize."</p>
<p>Goku slams himself to the ground like she'd punched him, grabbing her hips with his hands and helping seat her back over his length, gods, she can feel it twitching under her, or maybe that's her thighs twitching. It truly doesn't matter. </p>
<p>Her hands on his chest, they grind against each other again, Chi-Chi doesn’t have the vocabulary to describe the sensations beside <em>friction</em> and <em>slick</em> and <em>hot</em> and <em>more</em>. The thoughts creep back, though—is this okay? What is she doing? Are they going to—is it going to hurt? Her rhythm stutters the more she thinks about it, he’s tugging her down again—</p>
<p>His tail curls around her wrist. “Are you okay?” Goku bites out, breathless. His eyes are still wide but there’s concern behind desire. </p>
<p>She swallows. Confidence. Princess. “I think so.” </p>
<p>Deep breath, Goku takes his hands off her hips, folds them behind his back (he looks like someone’s got him in a lock, Chi-Chi notices—it’s a good look for him). “Go slow?” he suggests, like he knows. His tail strokes against her pulse. She feels better. </p>
<p>She lines him up—in her hand he seems hard but soft, it’s difficult to describe—and they start adjusting. <em>Move right a little. Lean back maybe? I think I’m too high up. Wait, spread your legs more. Does that sting? It’s okay. </em>He holds still with nothing but willpower, she thinks, willpower and fear of hurting her, and she rocks, up and down, just a little at first, more down than up, over and over. It is white-hot, intense, stretching, even with all the slick it does sting a little, but it isn’t...bad? </p>
<p>Goku groans her name when she manages to seat herself flush onto him, fully sheathed inside her, hip to hip. It is a wonderful sound, and yeah, she <em>really</em> wants him to do that again.</p>
<p>The mechanics aren’t so hard to figure out, move in and out, lever on her hands. The angle needs a little more practice. A few tentative passes and Chi-Chi lets out a little laugh at his gritted teeth, then a gasp when Goku’s hands grab her hips again and pull her straight down into him with such force that she moans because <em>that</em> angle was something else, something not just neutral or stinging or not bad, but actually pleasurable. </p>
<p>She smiles down at him, mimics the movement. “I’m trying to figure it out. It feels good.”</p>
<p>“It feels <em>great</em>,” he purrs.</p>
<p>The rhythm is easy to find the second time, and the more she swings her hips down on him the better it feels—he thrusts up into her, pulling on her, squeezing her so tightly and that tail is around her waist now, curling and adding even more force, the electricity is coming back to her, coiling and curling and she’s losing her breath and beneath her Goku’s matching her and meeting her adjustments and oh the temperature of his skin was blazing—impossibly good, they should have been doing this so many times before—</p>
<p>At some point she’d closed her eyes to focus on the sensations, on chasing that high she’d felt before, but she feels the whole world shift and tilt, what? Goku’s pulled on her, moved them, sitting up against the couch, her toes have slid underneath it as he positions her in his lap and <em>oh</em> she isn't in control anymore, is she? Faster faster faster he moves beneath her, she just has to hang on, he curls around her with his whole body to get leverage, head tucked into her neck, and Chi-Chi yelps when he bends her a little too far backwards—he stutters and chokes out an apology and then another groan and goes from thrusting to twitching and she can feel him deep in her, shaking, before he suddenly withdraws, there's something hot and sticky on her stomach, and it's over. </p>
<hr/>
<p>Afterwards, they talk. </p>
<hr/>
<p>Goku doesn't suffer from shame or embarrassment nearly as much as she does, so it's easy for him to tell her what she wants to know. Raditz and him have been having conversations about these things, more than just the one she overheard so long ago. And at one point, her father had sat Goku down and talked about the birds and the bees. (She doesn't know whether to smile or cringe at her own memory of that talk. Both. She misses her Papa.) So at the very least he'd had a theoretical understanding of sex and children. </p>
<p>Chi-Chi is sore, but when he asks if she's okay she answers honestly. It was fun! She feels guilty, for some reason. She wants to try again! She doesn't want to talk about it. She's proud of herself and happy with Goku. She's second guessing everything that just happened. </p>
<p>"Do you wish we hadn't done that?" he asks her. They've moved to the bathroom, to try and clean off. </p>
<p>"I'm glad we did," she says, and she means it. </p>
<p>Goku suggests they take a shower together and she agrees. She learns that hot water and cum don't agree with each other much, and she learns what he actually looks like naked, top to bottom. He soaps her up innocently until she sighs, and then he soaps her up not innocently at all. They dissolve into giggles and kisses, his lips still taste like her and she complains and then he kisses those icky lips all over her neck and shoulders and she squeals and tries to wiggle away. </p>
<p>Wrapped up in fluffy towels on the couch, Chi-Chi looks at Goku and her heart sings. </p>
<hr/>
<p>Months pass, and they talk more, to each other and to their other friends. Only about half of the time do they go from sparring to sex, learning what they like, what they don't. There are missteps and mistakes on both their parts, and fights and makeups. Eventually, Chi-Chi tentatively kisses him without the sparring as a pretense, and that time they make it to a bed. </p>
<p>They celebrate Goku's 20th birthday with a party, cake, tons of food. Saiyans, it turns out, love parties. Eventually only the brothers Bardock are left, and as Chi-Chi heads to bed they settle in and talk for hours. </p>
<p>Raditz is actually still there in the morning—Goku comes to bed near dawn, because he and his brother fall asleep in a pile on the couch and he only wakes up when Raditz accidentally elbows him in the gut. Chi-Chi gets out of bed and goes to make tea, or what passes for it from the synthesizer, and by the time she returns with a mug Raditz is bleary-eyed but awake. </p>
<p>Chi-Chi holds up her mug, and Raditz grunts and nods. She goes to get a second one. They sit in comfortable silence for a bit. As the sleep leaves his face, he looks almost contemplative.</p>
<p>“You two should get mated,” Raditz says out of the blue, and she inhales tea and nearly chokes to death. He whacks her on the back to help. </p>
<p>"We <em>are</em> mated," she wheezes. </p>
<p>He rolls his eyes. "You've never done the whole process, right? Kakarot told me that you two have fucked—"</p>
<p>"He did <em>what</em> now?!"</p>
<p>"—but I don't see any marks on you." He gestures at her neck, blatantly ignoring her temper. "Has he bitten you at all?" </p>
<p>"What in Kami's name are you talking about?!"</p>
<p>Raditz mutters a Saiyan curse and drains the tea she'd given him in one gulp. "I told Kakarot about this, I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell you too."</p>
<p>So he explains. </p>
<p>It takes Chi-Chi a few days to stop being scandalized by the whole thing. She won't look at either him or Goku, and when she goes on shift with Tesulet later he asks what creature bit her tongue out a few too many times, until she threatens to bite <em>his</em> tongue out and he shuts up. </p>
<p>Towards the end of that week, she comes home from her work to find the brothers Bardock both on her couch, waiting expectantly. She doesn't have time to say anything before Goku bursts out, "Chi-Chi! Marry me!" </p>
<p>Since coming to the ship, Chi-Chi had been mentally revising how she would be proposed to by Goku (because of course, she wanted to marry him for real). Again, this never made the list. </p>
<p>She yells at him, and his brother for good measure, about his bad delivery and lack of romance.</p>
<p>Then, Chi-Chi says yes. </p>
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